HTC One Mini Drives Into View, Isn't That Small

The HTC One has been one of the most desired and heavily advertised smartphones in recent months, but time stands still for no device maker. So, HTC has unveiled the One Mini in keeping with the growing tradition of covering the size bases.

Yet Another Mini Me

While not telling the world how the HTC One is selling, the company continues to push hard at the premium smartphone space with a new, smaller model, packing a sharp and vivid 4.3" HD 720p screen, tweaked down from the 4.7" display of the original, with a slightly reduced Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.4GHz dual-core processor running the show.

Storage is 1GB of DDR2 for the processor to use and 16GB internal storage for apps with expansion for more and driving it all is a 1800mAh battery. LTE support is there for compatible networks and you can record 1080p video or take snaps with the 4MP+ UltraPixel camera.

The HTC One mini will be available in Glacial Silver and Stealth Black, with an aluminium unibody design, slim profile and tapered edges to keep it looking and feeling high end. Even though its a little smaller, it still packs those BoomSound dual frontal stereo speakers, powered by dedicated amplifiers to deliver less distortion and finer audio details. It also features the BlinkFeed home screen to put all your most current and relevant data on the front

Old vs. new, big vs. slightly smaller

Fighting Fire with Metal

The obvious beauty of the HTC mini and its slight edge on portability should help the brand expand and keep plugging away at the top-end of the Android market. It will ship in August in select territories, with general availability in September. Pricing to be confirmed.

About 4-5mm narrower and shorter than its predecessor, and 20g lighter, the HTC One mini loses a few things in translation including NFC support and some of the camera features. However, with the power of the brand, assuming it hits a sweet-spot price wise it should do very well at retail come the fall.

Competing against the breadth of Samsung's range, it should give HTC a nudge in the coming months. However, even as eyes turn to Apple's 2013 iOS 7-powered line-up, niche devices like the Lumia 1020, could see users looking for that something extra.

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